A Different Ending
by sldlovestv18
Summary: What if the team didn't catch Reid's clues when he was kidknapped by Hankel? He still shoots him, but then what? Slight Revelations AU, but just a little. It's really just an idea for an alternate ending. Rated because of mentions of drug use. Story is better then this crappy summary, promise. Now a two-shot! For now. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

The team stared dumbly at the screens in front of them. Had Reid actually just do that? Did he really pick one of them to die? And did he pick Hotch of all people? It all just seemed so strange.

"Hotch, he didn't mean it like that, you know that. He was just trying not to get himself killed." Morgan tried to assure Hotch, but it was so hasty as to be ineffective.

"I know." He did know that, but it still stung to know that Reid would choose him to die. "What do we do now?"

"We wait until the bastard shows up to kill you, ambush him, get him to tell us where Reid is, then bring the kid home." Morgan asserted firmly and the others seemed to agree.

"Don't forget the part where we cross our fingers and hope that that lunatic doesn't slice one of our necks open before we catch him." Prentiss said pointedly, as strangely level headed as she has been almost this entire time. "Hankel is pretty swift with that knife, we need to be careful."

"We can do this, we can do this and Spence will be fine, right?" JJ asked, looking to the room for some support.

"Of course."

"How long till he gets here?"

"It's impossible to tell, he could be here in fifteen minutes, or one of his personalities could emerge and hold them up arguing or worst, punishing Reid more. All we can do now is wait." Hotch sighed.

And so they waited.

Not all that much longer, out in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere, Reid shot his captor, effectively rescuing himself. He first looked up at the horizon. No one was in sight, no one had come for him. He then looked back down at Tobias, who's eyes he had just watched the light leave. Guilt munched at the edges of his heart. Tobias had only wanted to help him, it was the other personalities that was the problem. Tobias had been pushed, snapped by an abusive father, Reid felt bad for him, and now he had killed him. Suddenly something else was biting at his heart. Reid gave a small cursory glance up before gently reaching into the pocket of the corpse below him and sliding out two tiny, lightweight, and yet strangely heavy, glass vials. Dilaudid. He pocketed them and heaved himself to his feet.

Reid looked around, trying to pretend he hadn't done what he just did, even though there was absolutely no one around to see his actions. He padded off in the direction he thought the road was in, his bruised foot stinging against the rough ground. He could go back to the shed and get his other shoe, but he didn't he could handle going back in there, with the tiny chair and the burning fish organs. Not so soon after he had literally died there. He had questions about what he saw when he died, but for now he would focus on getting the hell out of dodge. It was freezing out, but Reid couldn't stop, he had to escape, he can't handle the memories. He needed to distance himself, quick. After limping along for fifteen minutes, he made to the street. He looked back and forth. It was late, he was in the middle of nowhere, there was no chance that he would be hitch-hiking. Looks like he was walking.

Reid sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets, both to warm them and to roll the vials of narcotics around with his fingers. He looked up at the sky. Good thing about the country sky, it was clear as water, and all the stars and the moon were clearly seen. Books on astronomy Reid had read when he was a child flashed in his memory. He remembered a paper he read about people navigating with the stars, and figured that if he followed this road east, he would eventually reach the police station. He found east and he was on his way. Limping into the darkness. This was going to be a long night.

After so many hours of waiting with no Hankel showing and no new videos or streams, they decided to retreat to the hotel. There was nothing more to do there. They had no leads, and no new evidence, and they were all tired. After being up for so long, they need to rest. They weren't even sure if Reid was alive anymore. In the morning, they would check in at the police station and see if they had found a body or not.

Boy, were they in for a surprise.

After being in the office for thirty minutes, to their complete show, a bruised, sweaty, and exhausted Spencer Reid stumbled into the police station, declaring a weak 'it's okay, I'm fine' before collapsing to the floor.

"Reid!" The team gasped all at once, rushing over to their fallen comrade, who had a small crowd of concerned bystanders shuffling around him. Morgan was the first to reach him, kneeling down by him and lifting his torso up onto his lap.

"Reid, Pretty Boy, hey. Hey, look at me. Wake up." Morgan prodded the genius and his eyes fluttered open. Reid's eyes were bloodshot and slightly glazed over, clearly exhausted, they flicked open and shut rapidly for a few seconds, then rolled to the side before blinking again and then coming into focus.

"Morgan." Shit, he sounded just as bad as he looked.

"Reid, hey, there you are. What happened?" Morgan asked, but he looked up at the rest of team, an unspoken request for someone to call an ambulance. Garcia was quick to comply.

"Charles wanted to bury me alive… I was digging… shot him." He started off somewhat cohesive but started to drift off. Morgan shook him slightly, remembering Reid's little brush with death. He was slammed back pretty hard, he could have a concussion, it was best to keep him awake. "In a cemetery."

"A cemetery?" Morgan prodded, trying to keep him alert. By now JJ and Prentiss had joined him on the floor.

"He was keeping me in a cemetery. I left clues, hinted… didn't you get them?" Reid recognized how tightly Morgan was holding him and he was fairly certain that it was JJ's hand that was stroking his hair.

"…Hints?" They were genuinely curious.

""Leave their remains behind like a poacher", gave the wrong bible verse." That didn't really clear much up. Reid's eyes wandered to the side again, a telltale sign that he getting distracted. "I killed Tobias."

The heartbreak in his voice didn't escape anybody.

"He kidnapped you." Prentiss pointed out.

"He meant well… He saved my life." Reid was fading again, his head starting to jerk to the side as he fought sleep. "The other two were the problem."

"Alright, Reid, stay with us." Morgan lifted him up more, jolting him awake and bringing him into something that resembled holding, but was more of a hug. JJ got in closer, wrapping an arm around Reid and grabbing Morgan shoulder before pulling him into a sort group hug with Morgan. "We're just glad you're back."

"I was so worried about you." JJ said into Reid's hair. Reid became more alert.

"Are you okay? You didn't run into any trouble at the barn? I'm sorry we split up, that was stupid." Reid nodded his head back to try and look at JJ. "Large plot of land, dangerous unsub, with only the two of us. Stupid."

"Yeah, not our brightest moment, was it?" JJ was almost smiling, but she sounded like she might cry. "I'm fine, Spence, just had to deal with some mangy mutts."

"Those dogs would have been malnourished, so that they would eat the girl, they had to have been rabid with hunger, even after eating the girl." Reid was definitely more aware now. Good. And concussion or no concussion, Reid was still sharp. "The victim was likely already dead when you gotten there, that must have-"

"It was jarring at first, I'm fine now." JJ tried to sooth, but she also didn't want to talk about that quite yet. She was pretty sure the remains of that woman were going to haunt her for a while.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, Spence. How did you get here?"

"I walked… from the cemetery, followed the road going east." Reid's head started to roll to the side. "My feet hurt, I'm tired."

"Try to stay up just a bit longer, Reid, an ambulance is almost here." Hotch said from his position about a foot away, where he was lumbering protectively, glaring at the officers who were trying to crowd around, daring them to even try to get closer.

Soon after, Garcia took herself a position by Reid's side, distracting him from slipping into unconsciousness with talks about Doctor Who. Something about a Tenth Doctor, with Garcia talking about how yummy he was and Reid praising the storylines and the quality of acting more than anything else. Reid spit out a fact about the actor who played him- David something-or-other – that made Garcia smile. Nobody had any idea what they were talking about.

When the ambulance arrived, and took Reid away, the team relaxed considerably before starting to make their own way to the nearest hospital. They were so happy that their little genius had found his way back to them, if slightly guilty that they hadn't found him themselves and slightly worried that the kid would never truly be the same again. Maybe what they were feeling wasn't so simple, after all. Reid, on the other hand, was sort of happy be going to the hospital. While he was unhappy that he would be prodded and questioned, he was eager to see if they would give him some medication. His last dose that Tobias gave him wore off on the walk to the station and he was itching for a new escape from the reality he was currently occupying. One were his eidetic memory was flashing images of the horror and pain that he had experienced at the front of his mind, no matter what he did to try to stop it. One where his team was no doubt not going to be giving him looks of pity and treating him like he might shatter at any moment. And he might, but that didn't mean he wanted to be treated that way. For the team, this ordeal had just ended, but for Reid, it had just begun.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Alright, so I love Criminal Minds, and I super love the episode Revelations, the DVD commentary for the episode is one of my favorite things. But I can't be the only one that noticed that Reid sort of rescued himself, sure they figured out where he was in time to come pick him up, but if they hadn't, I'm pretty sure Reid would have still shot him to save his life. So the teams whole part in that episode was sort of useless from a plot stand point, I still love the episode, but it's a pretty big problem.**

 **So, I snooped around for fics where the team didn't get his hints, and Reid just rescues himself, but I couldn't find any to my liking. So I decided to write one myself.**

 **Not my best work, was a really quick write, so that's to be expected.**

 **Leave a review, tell me what you think! Also, I should note that I don't care how old this story becomes, feel free to leave a review. I'm cool with PM's too….**


	2. Chapter 2

Even though they weren't going to be sitting there long, the short time they had to sit in the waiting room while the doctor checked out Reid was still nerve racking. Gideon and Morgan were sitting down and looking at the floor, though Gideon was fairly still and deep in thought and Morgan's leg was bouncing up and down like that of a hyperactive, itchy dog and he was far less focused. And a lot more angry. Prentiss seemed the most calm, at least externally, her posture was relaxed, a bit closed off, but relaxed; but her eyes gave away how worried she was, even if she hadn't known Reid for long. Garcia and JJ were the most externally distressed, with tense body language and rapid eye movement. Garcia looked like she could burst into tears. Hotch, on the most opposite hand possible, was pacing the floor, the wheels in his head turning, as he flipped through a bible he had found somewhere in the hospital. But then he stopped, having found what he wanted, before walking over and slamming the bible down in front of the team.

"He gave the wrong bible verse." Hotch said, pointing down at his discovery.

"…What?"

"What are you on to, Aaron?" Gideon asked, leaning forward.

"When he gave my sentence, he listed a bible verse, but it wasn't the one that he said. It's about burial." Hotch pushed the book forward. "It was a clue."

"When he tumbled into the station he mentioned a cemetery, he must have figured out that he was being held in one." Morgan figured, everyone nodded in agreement.

"We would have eventually figured that hint out. It's not all that complicated, but only someone like Reid such an instant recall for things like that." Gideon was defecting guilt for not finding Reid, clearly. "But, now that you mention it, that does sound familiar."

"Even if we knew he was in a cemetery, it wouldn't have been enough. There are a ton on small cemeteries in town, he could have been in any of them." JJ said, and at this point everybody but Garcia was leaning forward, like they were working on a profile.

"Reid mentioned clues, as in more than one."

"Alright, lets think about all the videos that Hankel streamed to us, did Reid do anything strange?" Gideon asked and everybody nodded, going through them in their minds. Morgan was the first to pop up.

"Poacher! When he said 'and leave their remains behind like a poacher', he looked over at the camera for a second."

"That makes sense. They were out in the middle of nowhere, Hankel would have probable been taught to hunt by his father." Gideon nodded. "Hankel could have gone out to a nearby farm and poached some animals for food, or maybe a sacrifice."

"If the poaching was reported, that combined with the fact that they were in a cemetery, we definitely could have figured out where he was." Garcia said and everything went silent for a moment, like everybody was soaking it in. Reid had given them all the clues they needed to find him, and they failed. They knew it wasn't their fault, the clues weren't all that obvious, there wasn't anything they could do about it all now, but still…

"We could have saved him." It was JJ who said it, and the heartbreak was clear in her voice. This whole thing had already been a giant hurricane of guilt for JJ, and this certainly wasn't helping.

"I doubt we could have gotten to him before he killed Hankel." Morgan said, leaning back now and rubbing his face. "At the very least we could have been spectators or been there to pick him up."

"But what if that would have made a difference?" JJ was starting to get a little snappy now. Morgan looked ready to snap back, but Hotch cut him off.

"JJ has a point. Reid has a habit of throwing up walls to protect himself. If we had been there right as he freed himself we could potentially get to him before he builds the walls up too high, but he was alone with himself and his thoughts right after he killed Hankel. He's probably let himself stew in it, agitated his mental wounds." Hotch had never sounded so tired while trying to profile. "Things would have been bad if we had arrived in time, but now…"

He didn't need to finish, they knew. This could be bad, they could only hope that Reid would them in, but given Reid's history of hiding things, it seemed unlikely. Reid was a very private person. In the midst of their silence, the doctor showed up to tell them that Reid was fine and they could see him. Wild dogs couldn't have kept them away. The doctor had tried to shout after them to tell they could only have three visitors at time, but they were already gone. As if they would have listened anyway. When they entered the exam room, Reid was sitting on the exam table, wearing a hospital gown and staring out the window. He was clearly thinking about something, Morgan could almost hear the cogs in his friend's robot brain spinning, he swore, and given recent events, it probably wasn't about anything good. Garcia was to first to approach him, and the loud clicking of her vibrant heels seemed to alert Reid to the fact that he had visitors. He didn't make any attempt to smile, he knew they'd see through it.

"Hey, Boy Wonder, you scared us." Garcia went right up to his side, but she didn't make any move to touch him. She didn't want to trigger anything for him.

"Sorry about that." Was Reid dry response, but she could tell he was trying to be funny. He looked up at her, and she wanted to cry because something was _wrong_ and she could see it in his eyes that something was wrong. She could clearly see his brain lasers pointing at her, analyzing her, and that was normal, but the look of his eyes, it was hollow, empty, just _wrong_. "You can give me a hug if you want." He knew her too well.

"Don't ever do that ever again." Garcia muttered after she had rapped her arms around him.

"I'll try not to." Reid peaked around her shoulder. "The doctor said I could leave, right?"

"They said they wanted to keep you over night to make sure your brain doesn't herniate."

"Of course." Reid seemed agitated now, and while that wasn't unusual considering the circumstances, but it was still such a strange look on Reid. "I think have enough medical knowledge to get medical help if things get bad. If I signed out AMA how mad do you think he would get?"

"Pretty mad, you did hit the back of your head and then immediately go into arrest, it's pretty concerning." Hotch raised a brow.

"Tobias gave me CPR in time, now I'm fine." Reid protested, shaking his head. "I want to get out of here. I don't like hospitals; the lights are too bright and it smells too clean." His injection marks were itching, memories were flashing before his mind, and he was on the verge of an anxiety attack. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be here.

"I'll go get the exit forms." Gideon said, walking away, Hotch and Morgan chased after him. JJ and Emily went to his side, and he was sure they were saying something sweet and meaningful, but it just wasn't processing. He looked over to the bag they put his clothes in and grabbed it, pulling it into his lap and hugging it to his chest. The genius, in all his wisdom, didn't know if he was doing it to protect himself or what was in the bag, or more specifically what was in the pocket of his pants in the bag.

JJ, Emily, and Garcia frowned, fearing that they might have lost Reid after all.

Reid just wanted to escape.

 **Author's Note:**

 **I know its late… REALLY late, but you guys wanted more. I'll probably end it here. But if you guys want more, I'll write more. It'll be slow, but I'll do it. Be warned, if I do write more than this, it will start mirroring the show a lot more from here out. Like stuff about the cases. But I think it might be good to end here. It's weird ending, but it will work.**


End file.
